Monday, July 18, 2005

Conservative workers

It used to be common to think of conservatives as being establishment types, whilst the working class were more radical and left-wing.

This stereotype has been wrong for a very long time. Further evidence for this comes from a report into the electoral defeat of the Australian Labor Party commissioned by a leading trade union, the CFMEU.

In a foreword to the Brompton report, a national secretary of the union, Trevor Smith, complains that the Labor Party leaders,

place their faith ... in the shallow and cheap propaganda of a wealthy, inner-city elite, which has a barely disguised contempt for a bunch of workers from the bush or outer suburbs.

The report itself concludes that,

What is required is for Labor to admit that its historical supporter base and its potential supporter base are culturally conservative.

The Labor Party, it recommends, shouldn't allow itself "to be dominated by an inner-metropolitan, latte-sipping minority".